Business research news, tips, facts and sources from the Library research team at the London Business School Library.

18 August 2010

Video Games in the 21st Century: The 2010 Report

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is the US association dedicated to serving the business and public affairs needs of companies that publish computer and video games for video game consoles, personal computers, and the Internet. This latest report from the ESA measures the economic contributions made by the US entertainment software industry to the American economy during the period 2005-2009. The 2010 report updates and expands upon an earlier study that quantified, for the first time, the economic benefits provided by the entertainment software industry to the US economy as a whole.

The 2010 report concludes that:

The US computer and video game software publishing industry directly employs more than 32,000 people in 34 states.

The total US employment, both direct and indirect that depends on game software now exceeds 120,000.

For the four-year period 2005 through 2009, direct employment in the US computer and video game software publishing industry grew at an annual rate of 8.65%.

The US computer and video game software industry’s value added to US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was $4.9 billion.

The real annual growth rate of the US computer and video game software industry was 10.6% for the period 2005-2009 and 16.7% for the period 2005-2008.

During the same periods, real growth for the US economy as a whole was 1.4% for2005-09 and 2.8% for 2005-08